Employees in general and hospital pharmacies

Assistant pharmacist – a person who has vocational secondary education or professional higher education in the field of pharmacy.

Category of a pharmacy – there are three different categories of pharmacies in Estonia: general pharmacy, hospital pharmacy and veterinary pharmacy.

Other employee – a person who is not a pharmacist nor a assistant pharmacist and who is not allowed to dispense medicinal products from pharmacies.

Pharmacist – a person of the pharmaceutical profession who has completed the curriculum of dispensing chemist training.

Pharmacy services – the retail sale or other dispensing of medicinal products together with provision of related consultations for the appropriate and effective use of medicinal products, and provision of information to the user on the correct and safe use and preservation of medicinal products, and the preparation of medicinal products as magistral formulae and officinal formulae and dividing-up into packages of medicinal products. Pharmacy services shall be provided only by pharmacies holding a corresponding activity licence and structural units thereof.

The main purpose of data collection is to obtain the overview of the medicinal products market, distribution of medicinal products sales, sold and consumed medicines and activity of pharmacies.

The Bureau of Statistics of the Estonian State Agency of Medicines has the responsibility to collect data from general pharmacies and hospital pharmacies concerning their sphere of activity. The drug utilization data is collected from all licensed pharmacies four times a year, every quarter.

Comparing the number of employees on different years it is worth noting that the methodology has changed during 2006-2021. Since 2015, the number of employees reflects only the total number of filled positions. Since 2019, the data on the total workload of the filled positions are available.

In April 2020, the pharmacy reform entered into force in Estonia, which significantly affected the number of existing pharmacies and their work.

General information about veterinary pharmacies can be found on the Estonian State Agency of Medicines webpage.

The number of employees at the end of the year is presented.

Classification of Administrative and Settlement Units of Estonia (EHAK)

This classification is used upon submission of regional statistics. Regional health care statistics are submitted by 15 counties. Information about Tallinn and Tartu is submitted separately. This classification system is available on the webpage of the Statistics Estonia in the Classifications section.

Categories of pharmacies

• General pharmacy is an enterprise formed for the purpose of provision of pharmacy services. General pharmacy has a right to dispense human and veterinary medicinal products and other pharmacy goods (e.g. natural products, medical devices, hygiene products) if it doesn’t interfere the sale of medicinal products.
• Veterinary pharmacy is an enterprise formed for the purpose of provision of services which has the right to dispense only veterinary medicinal products and other goods for animal keepers.
• Hospital pharmacy is a structural unit of a hospital which supplies such hospital and, based on an agreement, also hospitals belonging to other operators of hospitals, social welfare institutions or holders of an activity licence for provision of emergency medical care with medicinal products and other products for medical purposes.
• A branch pharmacy is a structural unit of a pharmacy.

Pharmacy statistics

State Agency of Medicines

E-mail: info[at]ravimiamet.ee

Phone: +372 737 4140

Updated: 12.05.2023